Tagged: cecile bledsoe

The "heck no" caucus on Arkansas' Medicaid expansion is turning into a very lonely place. Winning over a coalition of supporters of Arkansas' private option and lawmakers who were ushered into office on vows to kill it, Gov. Asa Hutchinson cleared a major hurdle in his plan to continue the program while looking at longer term changes.

Vowing to complete a takeover of the state's top offices after recent GOP gains, Republicans running for Arkansas governor and a U.S. Senate seat were among the dozens of candidates who made their bids official as the filing period opened Monday.

Republican legislators who had resisted expanding Medicaid in Arkansas say they're encouraged by a new plan that would allow funds from the federal-state program to purchase private insurance for the newly eligible, but say they need more details on how such a system would work.

Abortion opponents in Arkansas see an opportunity to enact new restrictions, including a ban on the use of telemedicine to make the abortion pill available, with Republicans controlling both sides of the Legislature in next year's session.